Unfortunately our designated Guest Speaker had to pull out due to illness, so President Max stood in at the last minute and gave a stellar performance! He chose to tell us about what happened in Singapore during the Second World War years, right up to the fall of Singapore early in 1942. Australian troops went to Singapore and Malaya in February 1941, and their mission was to prepare for a possible attack by Japanese forces. The Japanese landed troops in Thailand and Malaya on 8 December 1941, just about at the time that their country was attacking Pearl Harbour in the USA. Those forces advanced down the Malayan peninsula and soon threatened Singapore itself. Australians fought alongside troops from Britain and other parts of the British Empire. The Allied forces were surprised by the speed of the Japanese advance, and so they withdrew to the island of Singapore where they were soon overwhelmed by the Japanese - who started the attack on the island on 8 February 1942. The surviving Allied forces surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. Singapore was once considered an impregnable fortress, but it had now fallen to the Japanese after the Japanese had outwitted thousands of Australian, British and other Allied troops who then became prisoners of war. Many of them would not survive being captives of the Japanese. Thank you Max for bringing the remarkable story to us; many of us were unaware of the facts behind those dark days of World War II.